Single source of information apparatuses, methods, and systems

ABSTRACT

A control network communication apparatus, method, and system. The method of communicating control network information to a user interface includes a wireless gateway receiving control system information from a control node wirelessly over a local area mesh network, the wireless gateway receiving a request for control system information when it polls a remote server over a wide area network, the request transmitted to the remote server from a user interface, and the wireless gateway providing the requested control system information to the remote server for delivery to the user interface.

BACKGROUND Field of the Disclosure

The present disclosure generally relates to communication of a wirelessdevice to a network controller on a local area network (LAN) or a widearea network (WAN) and, more particularly, to a user interfacecommunicating locally or remotely with a gateway in a building controlsystem.

Brief Description of Related Art

Computer automated control systems may be accessed by a device, such asa wireless user interface. That wireless user interface may retrieveinformation from the computer automated control system and may transmitinformation to the computer automated control system. For example, theuser interface may receive the status of a device on the computerautomated control system, receive a current sensed condition from thecomputer automated control system, and provide schedule andconfiguration information to the computer automated control system.

The wireless user interface may communicate with devices on the computerautomated control system, may communicate with a cloud server thatperiodically retrieves information from the computer automated controlsystem, or both. Such a system too frequently provides information thatis not accurate to the user interface because, for example, the cloudinformation is outdated and too frequently does not provide userinterface changes to the computer automated control system promptly.Such a system also requires significant bandwidth for regularcommunication between a device such as a gateway on the computerautomated control system and the cloud.

Accordingly, there is a need for systems, apparatuses, and methods inwhich a device in the computer automated control system is the solesource of information transferred to or from the computer automatedcontrol system.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In one embodiment, the present disclosure contemplates a control networkthat includes a gateway, a control node, a cloud server. The controlnode communicates control information to the gateway on a local areanetwork and the user interface communicates with the gateway by way of awide area network, the user interface communicating with the gateway bysending messages to the cloud server that are retrieved from the cloudserver by the gateway through gateway polling of the cloud. The userinterface only receives information from the cloud that was left for theuser interface on the cloud by the gateway in response to a userinterface request for information.

In another embodiment, the present disclosure contemplates a method ofcommunicating control network information to a user interface wherein awireless gateway receives control system information from a control nodewirelessly over a local area mesh network, the wireless gateway receivesa request for control system information when it polls a remote serverover a wide area network, the request being transmitted to the remoteserver from a user interface, and the wireless gateway providing therequested control system information to the remote server for deliveryto the user interface. In embodiments, the user interface neverretrieves any information from the remote server that was not left atthe remote server by the gateway for the user interface and the userinterface never receives information from the remote server that was notprovided to the remote server by the gateway in response to a userinterface request, making the gateway the sole source of information tothe user interface.

In yet another embodiment, the present disclosure contemplates a gatewaysingle source of information system. That system includes a local areanetwork, a server that is remote from the local area network, and a userinterface device. The local area network includes an actuating node, apowered device connected to and actuated by the actuating device, and agateway wirelessly coupled to the actuating node on the local areanetwork, the gateway storing data regarding the operation of theactuating device. The remote server includes a database storing aperiodically backed up copy of the data stored on the gateway and a userinterface device for communicating with the gateway. The gatewayincludes a processor and a computer readable storage medium, thecomputer readable storage medium storing code executable by theprocessor. When executed by the processor, the code executable by theprocessor causes the processor to receive and store from the actuatingdevice an update to the data regarding a change in operation of thepowered device connected to the actuating device, receive and store fromthe user interface device another update to the data regarding anotherchange in operation of the powered device, and receive a prompt forinformation regarding the powered device from the user interface device.When the user interface device is communicating on the local areanetwork, the gateway will wirelessly transmit to the user interface viathe local area network a subset of the current data stored on thegateway regarding current operation of the powered device and when theuser interface device is not communicating on the local area network,the gateway will transmit from only the gateway to the user interfacevia the remote network a subset of the current data stored on thegateway regarding current operation of the powered device.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For the present disclosure to be easily understood and readilypracticed, the present disclosure will now be described for purposes ofillustration and not limitation, in connection with the followingfigures.

The accompanying drawings, wherein like reference numerals are employedto designate like components, are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the present inventions, are incorporated in andconstitute a part of this specification, and show embodiments of thoseapparatuses and methods that together with the description serve toexplain those apparatuses and methods.

Various other objects, features and advantages of the invention will bereadily apparent according to the following description exemplified bythe drawings, which are shown by way of example only, wherein:

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a gateway that operates inconnection with control and communication on a local area network;

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of a network in which embodiments ofthe present invention may operate;

FIG. 3 illustrates communication paths in an embodiment of the presentinvention; and

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of a method of communication between auser interface and a gateway.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to certain embodiments of thepresent disclosure, examples of which are illustrated in theaccompanying figures. It is to be understood that the figures anddescriptions of the present disclosure included herein illustrate anddescribe elements that are of particular relevance to the presentdisclosure, while eliminating, for the sake of clarity, other elementsfound in typical radios.

Any reference in the specification to “one embodiment,” “a certainembodiment,” or any other reference to an embodiment is intended toindicate that a particular feature, structure or characteristicdescribed in connection with the embodiment is included in at least oneembodiment and may be utilized in other embodiments as well. Moreover,the appearances of such terms in various places in the specification arenot necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. References to “or”are furthermore intended as inclusive so “or” may indicate one oranother of the ored terms or more than one ored term

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a gateway 10 with which a userinterface is to communicate in embodiments of transient networkcommunication. The gateway 10 includes a processor 12 and a wirelessnetwork communication device 14, which may be a ZigBee® networkcommunication device. The processor 12 and wireless communication device14 may be combined in a controller 16, which may be a microcontroller.The gateway 10 may also include a communication adaptor 18, memory 20, acommunication adaptor port or connector 22, one or more input devices24, diagnostic output devices 26, and a clock 38.

The gateway 10 may furthermore facilitate communications across networksincluding one or more wireless networks 40 and one or more wirednetworks 42.

It should be recognized that the gateway 10 may have fewer components ormore components than shown in FIG. 1. For example, if an input device 24or output device 26 is not desired, such a device may not be included inthe gateway 10.

The elements, including the processor 12, memory 20, data storage device36, output 26, input 24, and communication adaptor 18 related to thegateway 10 may communicate by way of one or more communication busses30. Those busses 30 may include, for example, a system bus or aperipheral component interface bus.

The memory 20 may, for example, include random-access memory (RAM),flash RAM, dynamic RAM, or read only memory (ROM) (e.g., programmableROM, erasable programmable ROM, or electronically erasable programmableROM) and may store computer program instructions and information. Thememory 20 may furthermore be partitioned into sections including anoperating system partition 32 where system operating instructions arestored, and a data partition 39 in which data is stored.

The processor 12 may be any desired processor and may be a part of acontroller 16, such as a microcontroller, may be part of or incorporatedinto another device, or may be a separate device. The processor 12 may,for example, be an Intel® manufactured processor or another processormanufactured by, for example, AMD®, DEC®, or Oracle®. The processor 12may furthermore execute the program instructions and process the datastored in the memory 20. In one embodiment, the instructions are storedin the memory 20 in a compressed or encrypted format. As used herein thephrase, “executed by a processor” is intended to encompass instructionsstored in a compressed or encrypted format, as well as instructions thatmay be compiled or installed by an installer before being executed bythe processor 12.

The data storage device 36 may, for example, be non-volatile batterybacked static random-access memory (RAM), a magnetic disk (e.g., harddrive), optical disk (e.g., CD-ROM) or any other device or signal thatcan store digital information. The data storage device 36 mayfurthermore have an associated real-time clock 38, which may beassociated with the data storage device 36 directly or through theprocessor 12 or controller 16. The real-time clock 38 may trigger datafrom the data storage device 36 to be sent to the processor 12, forexample, when the processor 12 polls the data storage device 36. Datafrom the data storage device 36 that is to be sent across the network 40or 42 through the processor 12 may be sent in the form of messages inpackets. Those messages may furthermore be queued in or by the processor12. The data storage device 36 may not be necessary for operation of thegateway 10 in certain embodiments as data may be stored in memory, forexample. Data may also be stored remotely and accessed over a network,such as the Internet.

The communication adaptor 18 permits communication between the gateway10 and other gateways 11 (depicted in FIG. 2), routers 72 (depicted inFIG. 2), devices, or nodes coupled to the communication adaptor 18 atthe communication adaptor connector 22. The communication adaptor 18 maybe a network interface that transfers information from a node such as arouter 72, a terminal device 74 or 75 (depicted in FIG. 2), a generalpurpose computer 76 (depicted in FIG. 2), a user interface 77 (depictedin FIG. 2) or another gateway 11 to the gateway 10 or from the gateway10 to a node 11, 72, 74, or 76. The communication adaptor 18 may be anEthernet adaptor or another adaptor for another type of networkcommunication. It will be recognized that the gateway 10 may alternatelyor in addition be coupled directly to one or more other devices throughone or more input/output adaptors (not shown).

The input device 24 and output device 26 may couple the gateway 10 toone or more input or output devices such as, for example, one or morepushbuttons and diagnostic lights or displays. It will be recognized,however, that the gateway 10 does not necessarily need to have an inputdevice 24 or an output device 26 to operate.

The processor 12 may include or be attached to the real-time clock 38such that the processor 12 may read or retrieve scheduled events fromthe data storage device 36 when or subsequent to real-time clock 38indication that the scheduled time has arrived. Those retrievedscheduled events may then be transmitted across the network 40 or 42.One or more of such scheduled events may trigger messages to be sent ata time or in a cycle and, where more than one message is triggered to besent across the network 40 or 42, those messages may form a queue. Thequeue may be created at the microprocessor 16.

FIG. 2 illustrates a network 70 in an embodiment of the presentinvention. In embodiments, the network 70 may be a mesh network. Thenetwork 70 includes a gateway, such as the gateway 10 illustrated inFIG. 1, one or any desired number of additional gateways 11, one or morerouters 72, a plurality of end devices 74 and 75, and one or moregeneral purpose computers 76 and user interfaces 77. The additionalgateways 11 may be like the gateway 10 illustrated in FIG. 1, or may beof various configurations. The end devices may be actuated devices 74such as lighting fixtures, blinds, or various other devices that arecontrolled by or in the network 70 and sensors 75 such as manuallyoperated switches, light level sensors, and other ambient conditionsensors.

Messages to be transmitted across the network 40, 42, or 70 may enterone or more queues, such as a broadcast queue for messages to betransmitted to all devices on the network, a multicast queue formessages to be transmitted to more than one but not all devices on thenetwork, and a unicast queue for messages to be transmitted to onedevice on the network. Each queue may be a packet queue where packetsmaking up a message are queued for transmission across the network 40,42, or 70. Messages or packets may be placed in that queue by theprocessor 12. Those messages and packets to be transmitted across thenetwork may furthermore come from different places or processor 12functions including scheduled events read from the data storage device36 by the processor 12 and events or data created by the processor from,for example, sensed data received from a sensor 75 coupled to thenetwork 40, 42, or 70.

The messages transmitted across the network 40, 42, or 70 may includedata to be used by one or more of the receiving nodes 72, 74, or 75 orevents to be actuated at one or more of the end device receiving nodes72, 74, or 75 such as turning a light on or off, energizing a motor on amotorized window shade or blind, controlling lighting brightness, orcontrolling lighting color.

In embodiments of wireless control networks, such as illustrated in FIG.2, there are four types of components: the cloud 100, one or more userinterfaces 76 and 77, one or more gateways 10 and 11, and control nodes74 and 75.

The cloud 100 may be viewed as a set of software programs running onserver computing on a cloud provider (such as Amazon Web Services orGoogle Cloud Platform) with elastic resources (meaning resources canadjust as needed), giving the appearance of an unlimited computingresource and an unlimited storage resource. One use of the cloud 100 maybe to store messages like a database.

A user interface 76 or 77 may operate through a mobile softwareapplication (an “App”) that may operate, for example, on the Androidoperating system or the Apple iOS operating system. The App is focusedon an easy-to-understand and easy-to-use interface for the end customerof the product. This device is constrained by the Platform that it runson and is heavily dependent on the operating system on which it runs.

The gateway 10, an embodiment of which is provided in and in connectionwith FIG. 1, manages communication between control nodes 74 and 75, auser interface 76 or 77, and the cloud 100. This gateway 10 may trackthe configuration of the control system. The gateway 10 may alsocommunicate in multiple protocols, such as Internet Protocol (IP) andZigBee Protocol. The gateway 10 may be an embedded device and, sincethere may be many gateways 10 and 11 in a control system 70, with one ormore gateways 10 and 11 in a control network 70, they may be considereda cost sensitive device and, for that reason, run on smallmicroprocessors with constrained resources.

Control nodes 74 and 75 include actuating nodes 74 that controlfixtures, devices or equipment, for example, through output signals andsensing nodes 75 that receive a signal from a sensor, such as an ambientlight sensor, a motion sensor, a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor,a flow sensor, or another type of sensor. Control nodes may wirelesslycommunicate with the gateway 10 using the ZigBee protocol. Control nodes74 and 75 may be the most prevalent devices in the control system 70and, thus, the most cost sensitive devices in the system 70.Accordingly, control nodes 74 and 75 may have highly constrainedresources and may only communicate using the ZigBee protocol and so maycommunicate directly only with the gateway 10.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of a network 200 that illustratescommunication paths 202, 204, 206, and 208 between the cloud 100, userinterfaces 76 and 77, gateways 10 and 11, and control devices 74 and 75.Communication paths include a gateway to cloud communication path 202for communication between the gateway 10 and a remote data storagedevice 210, which may also be referred to herein as the cloud, a gatewayto user interface communication path 204 for communication between thegateway 10 and a user interface 77, which may be, for example, a mobiledevice, a mobile phone, a tablet, a laptop or other form of computer 76,and a gateway to thing communication path 206 for communication betweenthe gateway 10 and nodes 74 and 75 that sense or that control enddevices. There may also be a communication path 208 between the userinterface 77 and the cloud 202.

In gateway 10 to cloud 100 and cloud 100 to gateway 10 communications,communication is typically conducted by way of the http(s) communicationprotocol. Communication between the gateway 10 and cloud 100 is alwaysinitiated by the gateway 10 such that the gateway 10 may communicate tothe cloud 100 as desired and the cloud only communicates to the gateway10 when polled by the gateway 10. A firewall typically stands as agatekeeper for the gateway 10 and that firewall typically prevents anyinbound communication to the gateway 10 that is not in response to arequest for communication sent by the gateway 10. Thus, the gateway 10can transmit messages to the cloud 100 and the gateway 10 can requestinformation from the cloud 100, but the cloud 100 cannot initiatecommunication with the gateway 10. The cloud 100 may, therefore, storemessages to be transmitted to the gateway 10 until the gateway 10 pollsthe cloud, requesting that those messages be transmitted from the cloud100 to the gateway 10.

The cloud 100 may similarly hold or store messages for a user interface76 or 77. The cloud may, however, never be the source of datatransmitted to the gateway 10 or user interface 76, 77. Rather, thecloud acts as an intermediary to pass information from the userinterface to the gateway and from the gateway to the user interface. Thecloud may perform its intermediary function in various ways includingacting as a database or a network relay that stores messages transmittedfrom one control system 70 device or node (i.e., 10, 11, 74, 75, 76, or77) to another control system 70 device or node until the receivingdevice or node requests that one or more messages from a different nodebe provided to it. Thus, the cloud 100 is used as a conduit forcommunications between nodes. Acting as a conduit, the cloud 100eliminates the need for a dedicated communication path between thegateway 10 and user interface 76 or 77.

To operate in such a system wherein each gateway 10, 11 acts as thesource of information related to its associated control network, eachgateway 10 and 11 periodically polls the cloud 100 to see if any requestfor information messages are waiting for that gateway 10 or 11. When thegateway 10 or 11 receives a request for information from, for example,one of the user interfaces 76 or 77, through the gateway 10 or 11polling of the cloud 100, the gateway 10 or 11 can respond to thatrequest by providing the requested information to the cloud 100.Requested information may be transmitted to the user interface 76 or 77by a transmission initiated by the cloud 100 in response to the userinterface 776 or 77 request for information.

When the gateway 10 or 11 receives a message from a user interface 76 or77 through the cloud 100, the gateway 10 or 11 may increase thefrequency of its polling of the cloud 100 in recognition that a userinterface 76 or 77 that makes a request of that gateway 10 or 11 islikely to make additional requests for information from that gateway 10or 11 during a session of user interface 76 or 77 activity.

In many control systems, both the Gateway 10 and the Cloud 100 keeptrack of parts of a local network of things (sensors and actuateddevices). That leads to frequent updating, putting great demand on thenetwork, and coherency problems where, for example, the cloud 100 doesnot receive an update and so holds and provides incorrect information.In the present invention, however, the gateway 10 retains allinformation related to the network 70. The gateways 10 and 11 arefurthermore the source of all information about the network 70 that maybe retrieved from the network 70. That includes information related tosensed values and states, commanded states and positions, schedules,configuration, and automated behavior of the local network managed byany gateway 10 or 11. Thus, in a situation wherein a user interface 76or 77 is programmed or commanded to retrieve information about a network70, that user interface 76 or 77 may communicate on the local network 70or may communicate through the cloud 100 to the gateway 10 or 11managing the information to be retrieved using the cloud 100 as atransmission mechanism, but the user interface 76 or 77 will not gatherthe desired information from a cache of previously acquired informationin the cloud 100.

FIG. 4 illustrates a method 300 of operation for a control network, suchas the control network illustrated in FIG. 2. The gateways 10 and 11 inthat network 70 may be viewed as the backbone of that network 70 becausethose gateways 10 and 11 communicate (directly or through one or morenetwork nodes, such as routers 72) with the sensing and actuatingcontrol nodes 74 and 75 in the network 70 or a portion of the network 70that operates in connection with that gateway 10 or 11, acquire andretain status of devices on the network 70 and information related tothe network 70, communicate with user interfaces 76 and 77 that requestinformation from the network 70 or provide changes in configuration ofthe network 70, and communicate with the cloud 100. More than onegateway 10 and 11 may be operating in a sub-network for backup purposesor to divide and increase the speed communications in that sub-network,for example.

At 302, the gateway 10 establishes communication with one or morecontrol nodes 74 and 75 in its network 70. Establishing communicationwith control nodes 74 and 75 may be a complex activity driven byproximity of the control nodes, logical groupings of control nodes 74and 75, or input received from a user interface, for example. When thegateway 10 establishes communication with the control nodes 74 and 75,the gateway 10 may communicate groupings of interoperating control nodes74 and 75 or communication pathways for the control nodes 74 and 75 andthe gateway 10, for example. The network 120 illustrated in FIG. 2 mayinclude one or a plurality of sub-networks, wherein each sub-networkincludes one or more of devices or nodes 10, 11, 74, 75, 76, or 77.

At 304, the gateway 10 retrieves current values associated with controlnodes 74 and 75 and associates those values with units of measurement,such as lumens or degrees, or a state, such as on or off. For example,the gateway 10 may retrieve a value associated with a medium sensed by asensor coupled to a sensing control node 75. The gateway 10 mayalternatively or additionally retrieve a binary state associated withthe operational status of a piece of equipment or a natural phenomenon,such as day and night.

The gateway 10 may also retrieve one or more values associated with anactuating control node 74. For example, the gateway 10 may retrieve acommanded state or position of an actuated device, fixture, or piece ofequipment controlled by an actuating node 74. The commanded state orposition may, for example, be a position in which an actuating controlnode 74 has positioned its control device or a state that a piece ofequipment has been commanded to by the actuating node 74.

At 306, the gateway 10 transmits current schedule and otherconfiguration information to control nodes 74 and 75. For example, thegateway 10 may provide information to control nodes 74 and 75 including,but not limited to, updated rules for operation, schedules by whichcontrolled devices and equipment are to follow, groupings ofinteroperating control nodes 74 and 75, communication pathways for thecontrol nodes 74 and 75 and the gateway 10, and user communications tothe control nodes 74 and 75.

At 308, a user interface 76 or 77 communicates with the gateway 10directly on the network 70 or through the cloud 100. The user interface76 or 77 may acquire information sensed by sensors and commanded statusof devices coupled to sensing control nodes 75 through the gateway 10.The user interface may also or alternatively retrieve information aboutpositions and states to which things have been commanded through thegateway 10. The user interface 76 or 77 may also provide a wide varietyof information to the gateway 10 about operation of the control nodes 74and 75, for example, modifying control node 74 and 75, groupings, andschedules and the gateway 10 may communicate that information to thecontrol modes 74 and 75.

At 310, the gateway 10 polls the cloud to see if there has been arequest made through the cloud 100 for information held by the gateway10. If any information held by the gateway 10 has been requested throughthe cloud 100, the gateway 10 will provide that information to the cloudto be passed to another network 70 device (i.e., 11, 76, 77). Suchrequests for information through the cloud 100 may be secured orotherwise confirmed to assure that the requesting device is anappropriate device to which to provide that information.

At 312, the gateway 10 provides information requested through the cloud100 to the cloud 100. For example, the user interface 76 or 77 mayrequest information from the network 70 coupled to the gateway 10. Thatrequest may be made directly to the gateway 10 through the local areanetwork 70 on which the gateway 10 is communicating or indirectly to thegateway 10 through the cloud 100 using a wide area network over paths202 and 208 as illustrated in FIG. 3. If the user interface 76 or 77request for information is made through the cloud 100 over the wide areanetwork on path 208, the requested information may be transmitted fromthe gateway 10 through the wide area network on path 202 and held orotherwise stored in the cloud 100. For example, the requests made by theuser interface 76 or 77 may be held in the cloud 100 in random accessmemory or a data storage device until the gateway 10 polls the cloud toretrieve messages held for the gateway 10 in the cloud. Similarly,information transmitted from the gateway 10 through the wide areanetwork on path 202 for the user interface 76 or 77 may be held in thecloud 100 in random access memory or a data storage device. The gateway10 may periodically poll the cloud 100 and in the next polling after theinformation request was transmitted to the cloud 100, the gateway 10 mayreceive the requests received in the cloud 100 from the user interface76 or 77. The gateway 10 may then transmit one or more responses to therequests for information to the cloud 100. The cloud 100 may then relayor transmit those responses to the user interface 76 or 77. Suchtransmission to the user interface 76 or 77 may be initiated by thecloud 100 or may be initiated by the user interface 76 or 77 when, forexample, the user interface polls or otherwise contacts the cloud 100 toreceive requested information.

The user interface 76 or 77 may alternatively or additionally provideinformation to devices 10, 11, 74, 75 on the network 70 through thegateway 10. The user interface 76 or 77 may provide that informationdirectly to the gateway 10 through a local area network 70 on which thegateway 10 is communicating or indirectly to the gateway 10 through thecloud 100 using a wide area network over paths 202 and 208 asillustrated in FIG. 3. If the user interface 76 or 77 providesinformation through the cloud 100 over the wide area network on path208, that information will be retained in the cloud 100 until thegateway 10 polls the cloud 100 on path 202 to determine whether thecloud 100 is holding information targeted to the gateway 10. The gateway10 then initiates transmission to the gateway 10 of the informationrequested by the user interface 76 or 77 and held in the cloud 100 thatis intended for the gateway 10.

Various information may be transmitted to the gateway 10 from the userinterface 76 or 77 through the cloud 100 including scheduling changesfor the control nodes 74 and 75, operational rule changes, system set-upchanges, overrides to command an actuating control node 74 to place itscontrolled device or equipment in a desired state or position, orcalibration information for a sensing control node 75.

In an embodiment of communicating control network information to a userinterface, the wireless gateway 10 receives control system informationfrom a control node 74 or 75 wirelessly over the local area mesh network70. The wireless gateway 10 then receives a request for control systeminformation from the user interface 76 or 77. That requested informationmay be information the gateway 10 received from the control nodes 74 or75 or information retained by the wireless gateway 10. The wirelessgateway 10 receives that request from the remote server 100 when thegateway 100 polls the remote server 100 over the wide area networkcommunication path 202, as illustrated in FIG. 3. The wireless gateway10 then provides the requested control system information to the remoteserver 100 for delivery to the user interface 76 or 77.

In that embodiment, the user interface 76 or 77 never retrieves anyinformation from the remote server 100 that was not left at the remoteserver by the gateway 10 for the user interface 76 or 77. The userinterface 76 or 77 may also never receive information from the remoteserver 100 that was not provided to the remote server 100 by the gateway10 in response to a user interface 76 or 77 request.

Thus, the remote server 100 may never provide any request for controlsystem information to the gateway 10 unless the gateway 10 polls theremote server 100 for control system information. Furthermore, theremote server 100 may never provide any modification to the controlnodes 74 or 75 received from a user interface 76 or 77 to the gatewayunless the gateway 10 polls the remote server 100 requesting thatmodification.

While the disclosure has been described in detail and with reference tospecific embodiments thereof, it will be apparent to one skilled in theart that various changes and modifications can be made therein withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the embodiments. Thus, it isintended that the present disclosure cover the modifications andvariations of this disclosure provided they come within the scope of theappended claims and their equivalent.

What is claimed is:
 1. A control network, comprising: a gatewaycommunicating on a local area network and a wide area network; a sensingcontrol node and an actuating control node communicating controlinformation to the gateway on the local area network; a cloud servercommunicating with the gateway by way of the wide area network; and auser interface communicating a request for sensed information from thesensing control node and a request for state information from theactuating control node through the gateway by way of the wide areanetwork, the user interface communicating the request for sensedinformation from the sensing control node and the request for stateinformation from the actuating control node through the gateway bysending a plurality of messages to the cloud server that are retrievedfrom the cloud server by the gateway through gateway polling of thecloud server, the user interface only receiving sensed information andstate information from the cloud server that was left for the userinterface on the cloud server by the gateway in response to a userinterface request for information.
 2. The control network of claim 1,wherein the gateway transmits information for the user interface to thecloud server.
 3. The control network of claim 2, wherein the userinterface receives only information transmitted to the cloud by thegateway, and the user interface receives that information from the cloudserver by polling the cloud server.
 4. The control network of claim 1,wherein the cloud only transmits information to the gateway when thecloud server is polled by the gateway.
 5. The control network of claim1, wherein the user interface only receives information from the gatewayand wherein the cloud server acts as an intermediary to pass informationfrom the user interface to the gateway and from the gateway to the userinterface.
 6. The control network of claim 1, further comprising theuser interface receiving information from the cloud server that wasplaced on the cloud by the gateway in response to a user interfacerequest.
 7. The control network of claim 1, further comprising the userinterface receiving information from the cloud server that was placed onthe cloud server by the gateway in response to a user interface requestonly when the user interface polls the cloud server.
 8. The controlnetwork of claim 1, the gateway further comprising: a networkcommunication device for communicating with a remote device; and aprocessor coupled to the network communication device, the processorincluding instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause theprocessor to: communicate with the sensing control node and theactuating control node; communicate with the cloud server; andcommunicate with the user interface, providing all information regardingthe sensing control node and the actuating control node requested by theuser interface through the cloud server and communicating all commandsrelated to the network transmitted by the user interface through thecloud server.
 9. The control network of claim 8, the processor includinginstructions that further cause the processor to initiate allcommunications with the cloud server and the user interface.
 10. Amethod of communicating control network information to a user interface,comprising: a wireless gateway receiving control system information fromat least one of an actuating control node and a sensing control nodewirelessly over a local area mesh network; the wireless gatewayreceiving a request for control system information when it polls aremote server over a wide area network, the request transmitted to theremote server from a user interface; and the wireless gateway providingthe requested control system information to the remote server fordelivery to the user interface; the user interface never retrieving anyinformation from the remote server that was not left at the remoteserver by the gateway in response to a user interface request.
 11. Themethod of communicating control network information to a user interfaceof claim 10, wherein the user interface never receives information fromthe remote server that was not provided to the remote server by thegateway in response to a user interface request.
 12. The method ofcommunicating control network information to a user interface of claim10, further comprising the wireless gateway transmitting control systeminformation to a control node wirelessly over the local area meshnetwork.
 13. The method of communicating control network information toa user interface of claim 10, wherein the user interface only receivesinformation from the gateway and wherein the remote server acts as anintermediary to pass information from the user interface to the gatewayand from the gateway to the user interface.
 14. The method ofcommunicating control network information to a user interface of claim10, wherein the remote server does not provide any request for controlsystem information to the gateway unless the gateway polls the remoteserver for control system information.
 15. The method of communicatingcontrol network information to a user interface of claim 10, wherein theremote server does not provide any modification to the sensing controlnode received from a user interface to the gateway and does not provideany modification to the actuating control node received from a userinterface to the gateway unless the gateway polls the remote serverrequesting that modification.
 16. The method of communicating controlnetwork information to a user interface of claim 10, further comprisingthe gateway polling the control node to acquire control systeminformation.
 17. A gateway single source of information system,comprising: a local area network comprising: an actuating node; apowered device connected to and actuated by the actuating device; and agateway wirelessly coupled to the actuating node on the local areanetwork, the gateway storing data regarding the operation of theactuating device; a remote server that is remote from the local areanetwork and coupled to the gateway through a wide area network, theremote server having a database storing a periodically backed up copy ofthe data stored on the gateway; and a user interface device forcommunicating with the gateway; wherein the gateway comprises aprocessor and a computer readable storage medium including codeexecutable by the processor to: receive and store from the actuatingdevice an update to the data regarding a change in operation of thepowered device connected to the actuating device; receive and store fromthe user interface device another update to the data regarding anotherchange in operation of the powered device; and receive a prompt forinformation regarding the powered device from the user interface devicesuch that: when the user interface device is communicating on the localarea network, wirelessly transmit from the gateway to the user interfacevia the local area network a subset of the current data stored on thegateway regarding current operation of the powered device; and when theuser interface device is not communicating on the local area network,transmit, from only the gateway to the user interface via the remoteserver, a subset of the current data stored on the gateway regardingcurrent operation of the powered device.
 18. The gateway single sourceof information system of claim 17, wherein none of the subset of thecurrent data transmitted to the user interface device is from theperiodically backed up copy of the data stored on the database on theremote network.
 19. The gateway single source of information system ofclaim 17, wherein the user interface device only receives informationfrom the gateway and wherein the cloud acts as an intermediary to passinformation from the user interface to the gateway and from the gatewayto the user interface.
 20. The gateway single source of informationsystem of claim 17, wherein the gateway code further causes theprocessor to initiate all communications with the cloud and the userinterface.